Call for Papers: Edited Volume on Religion and the X-Men’s Krakoan Age

Editors: Gregory Jones and Daniel Ambord

Beginning with Jonathan Hickman’s House of X/Powers of X limited series, the Krakoan Age X-Men stories occur against the backdrop of the establishment of a post-scarcity and post-mortality mutant homeland on the living island of Krakoa. The Krakoan Age ran from 2019 and 2024 and included more than 500 issues spread across 80 different comic titles. Within this vast body of text, a dizzying plurality of story-types are explored, ranging from gritty police procedurals, to sprawling war stories, to cozy slice-of-life tales. The Krakoan Age stories are also notable in their creative and interesting engagement with religious stories and themes, particularly in series such as Way of X, Legion of X and The Onslaught Revelation. Beyond these direct confrontations, the characters, settings, and themes of the more secular Krakoan Age titles pose provocative religious questions of their own.

Put another way, the stories featured in the Krakoan Age present an excellent opportunity for textual criticism and deep analysis with an eye to unpacking their religious themes, but are equally valuable insofar as they provide a laboratory for thinking through religious questions (broadly conceived). The present volume is therefore contemplated as an interdisciplinary and interconfessional scholarly exploration of theology and religion in and through the Krakoan Age comics. Perspectives are sought from diverse religious traditions as well as academic disciplines dealing with religious topics, including (but certainly not limited to) theology (including theologies of race, liberation, feminist and queer theologies, ecotheologies and so on), philosophy of religion, religious studies, literary theory, ritual studies, sociology of religion and psychology of religion.

Possible topics include (but, again, are not limited to):

• Theological perspectives on “immortality” in the Krakoan Age (examples: mutant resurrection via the Five; the many lives of Moira X; mutant existence between life and death in The Waiting Room; mutant mysticism in the Altar; mutant heaven in the White Hot Room; mutant hell in the Pit; the creation of Nimrod; the resurrection of Magneto; the emergence of Enigma; the rebirth of the Phoenix)
• Apocalyptic/Eschatological Themes in the Krakoan Age (examples: mutant messiah figures; Moira and/or Destiny’s foreknowledge of the future; Krakoa’s battle against the Eternals during the A.X.E Judgment Day crossover; Orchis’s Hellfire Gala attack; Uranos’s attack on Arakko; Phoenix vs. Enigma)
• Culture and Rituals in the Krakoa Age (examples: The Resurrection Ceremony, The Crucible, The Hellfire Gala; The X of Swords Tournament; the creation of Arakko; The Quiet Council of Krakoa; the Orchis Forge; the Great Ring of Arakko; the City of the Children of the Vault; Krakoa as the place for redemption and/or corruption)
• Religious Pluralism in the Krakoan Age (examples: making various mutant religions; Legion of X as religious police force; establishing the “three laws” of Krakoa; formal and informal religious instruction on Krakoa; traditional and non-traditional religious identities of Krakoa; the spirituality of The Spark)

Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words (including 5 keywords), an author bio of no more than 100 words, and a current CV to Daniel Ambord (daniel.ambord@cgu.edu) and Gregory Jones (jonesg3@duq.edu) by May 31, 2026.

The editors will then review all submitted abstracts and notify applicants by June 30, 2026.

Final manuscripts will be capped at 6,000 words, with the first draft being due August 31, 2026.

The final work will be submitted for inclusion in the Religion and Comics Series by McFarland Press.